Grassley weighs in on controversy over Obama’s senate seat

Most Republicans in the U.S. Senate have been quiet about the controversy surrounding the man appointed to out-going Illinois Senator Barack Obama’s seat, but Senator Chuck Grassley this week said it’s important for the senate to follow the "rule of law." Democrats reversed course mid-week and cleared the way for Roland Burris — the pick of the embattled Illinois governor — to be seated as Obama’s replacement.

Grassley this week indicated that’s probably the right path to pursue. "The Supreme Court made a decision in roughly 1970 in the Adam Clayton Powell case that said that as long as a member meets age, residence and citizenship qualifications, the House of Representatives — that case — couldn’t deny him a seat," Grassley said during a telephone conference call this week.

According to Grassley, Burris — a Democrat — has a "perfect right" to be the next junior senator from Illinois. "We Republicans were advocating a special election, but that can’t be done only by the Illinois legislature setting it up," Grassley said, "If that isn’t going to be done, I don’t see how you select a senator except by governor appointment."

The top Republican in the senate has said it is the "unanimous Republican view" that the situation involving the Illinois senate seat is a "an ethnically-tainted, challenging mess" in which Republicans don’t want to become entangled.

Iowa’s other U.S. Senator, Democrat Tom Harkin, has called Burris "clean as a whistle" and said Wednesday that "basically, (Burris) should have been seated" as a U.S. Senator when he arrived at the capitol on Monday. Under a deal worked out Wednesday, Burris will be sworn in as a U.S. Senator if the Illinois Secretary of State signs his appointment papers and Burris clears an Illinois state senate committee and the U.S. Senate’s Rules Committee.